Taluva

Ferti edition

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Product Description

In the distant past clans compete to build villages on a volcanic island which is constantly changing landscapes. Each turn, players place a new triangular tile to increase the size of Taluva or change the existing topography.

Player's can add temples and towers and huts to the board in an attempt to score the most points.

A great tactical and strategic game, easy to learn, the board is different every time which leads to no game being the same.

Product Reviews

It seems like there are countless tile laying games and the fact
is, I find many boring and uninteresting to play. Perhaps one of
the most well known, "Carcassonne", I've always hated because
of not being able to immediately see whether a certain tile would
fit here or there and I'd find myself laying the tile down to see if
all the landscape types matched, only to realize that they didn't.
and then start the whole process again each turn. So you can
imagine my surprise after playing my first 2 player game
of "Taluva."

WOW! Was the first thing that crossed my mind after that first
game. Surprised at having such a reaction to a tile laying I
began to try and figure out what makes "Taluva" so different.

First off, the titles are big and thick and beautifully designed with
volcanoes and various other types of landscapes on them. In
addition, this is a 3-D tile laying game that really comes to life as
the game plays out. It actually feels like you're creating 3
dimensional villages with huts, temples and towers in the course
of trying to win the game. It really is beautiful. Perhaps more
importantly, when placing tiles with "Taluva", you can
immediately see where and how tiles may be placed at a glance.

Each player starts out with 3 temples, 2 towers and 20 huts of a
particular color. All of these are nicely made wooden bits. All the
tiles are mixed and placed face down into a drawing stack(s).
The starting player picks 1 face down tile, turns it over and the
game begins.

THE RULES:

A Player's Turn consists of two parts:

Place a volcano tile

Place 1 or more buildings

When placing a tile, there are one of two choices you can make.

Expand the Landscape

Create A Volcanic Eruption.

To expand the landscape, you must place 1 tile directly on the
table and at least one of it's edges must connect with at least 1
edge of a previously placed tile. Creating possible holes in the
landscape is allowed.

To create a volcanic eruption, you place a volcano tile on top of
already placed tiles. The following conditions must be met in
order to do so:

The volcano space, must lie on top of a volcano space on an
already placed tile. The placed volcano may not be flowing in the
same direction as the volcano it's placed upon. As easier way of
way of saying that, is to say that no two tiles may be stacked
FLUSH on top of each other. The placed tile may not be placed
on empty or non tile spaces.

Additional Covering Rules:

You may place a tile that covers your own or your opponent's
huts and thus remove them from the game.

You may, if you choose, cover 2 or even 3 volcanoes with a tile.

You may not cover a temple or tower.

A player may not completely cover a settlement. He thus must
leave at least one hut, temple or tower, uncovered. Note: A
Settlement is considered any group of the same colored houses,
that are adjacent to each other, regardless of their level.

Part two of your moves consists of placing 1 or more houses..
Temples, Towers and Huts may only be placed on empty spaces
and may not be placed on a volcano. Other house placement
rules will depend on the house being placed.

HUTS - You may place 1 hut on any level one space. Note this is
the only way to start a New Settlement.

TEMPLES - You may place 1 temple on any space, on any level,
provided it's adjacent to a settlement what occupies a minimum
of 3 spaces and have no other temples present..

TOWERS - You may place a Tower on any level 3 space or higher
that's already adjacent to a settlement, which doesn't already
have a Tower present.

Lastly you can expand an existing settlement, which is the only
way to place more than 1 hut on a turn. You first must choose a
settlement, then a particular terrain type you'd like to expand
into and thus will be allowed to place huts in all such adjacent
terrain types that are adjacent to the settlement chosen. Note
that the level of the tile indicates how many huts may be placed
on each terrain space, with any Level 1 space getting1 hut,
Level 2 space, 2 huts, etc.

END OF GAME

The game ends at the end of a player's turn, when the last tile is
placed. The player who's placed the most temples wins. If tied,
the most towers win. If still tied, the most huts wins.

There are also 2 additional ways in which the game can end
prematurely. Any player that uses up 2 out of their 3 types of
houses, automatically wins the game. In addition, if a player can
not place a house on their turn, they automatically lose and are
out of the game, although their houses remain on the board.

THOUGHTS ON THE GAME

Playing "Taluva" is much easier than it is to explain and the 4
page instruction booklet does an excellent job of getting you up
and running. Unlike many other tile laying games, where you find
yourself trying to decide if a tile fits based on the surrounding
tiles next to it, "Taluva" has no such problem. It's really tough to
find fault with anything here. Nice components, great tiles, easy
to play and nice to look at. Throw in the different ways it's
possible to pull off a win and you have a game that's fun,
challenging, and exciting to play. I guess that's why it's a
MASTERPIECE!

I've been playing this game for a couple years, and it hits the table more frequently
than average. It works best with two, but works okay with three or four. The depth of
strategy opens up after a few plays, and it does have high replayability.

However, as others have stated, this is WAY too expensive! It has more than doubled in price, and even just went up again! I'm upset because my copy is pretty worn, and I'd like to get another if it were more affordable.

by
Jose

Great game, but priced too high

July 07, 2013

I really enjoy this game. It's highly strategic, looks great (making it accessible),
satisfying finish, and usually ends in a satisfying way where you can immediately see
who won without having to count up a score. However, this reprint is simply priced too
high--it's almost double the cost of the original printing! I can't get it until it
comes down in price...